Everyone’s got an opinion on bullpen

SAN FRANCISCO  Not being the type to expect special treatment, Bud Black was standing in line waiting for a seat at a North Beach cafe Saturday night when he was recognized, and not as a guy who pitched for the San Francisco Giants.

Black explained how Heath Bell was being withheld, having worked four straight games, and Adams was being reserved for the possibility of a save situation. The man nodded, thanked Black and told him to enjoy his meal.

“I get a lot of that,” Black said. “I get a lot of that at home, too.”

Meaning, at his house. Even among his staff, Black said, the “thing we talk about most” is the management and maintenance of the bullpen. Now that the season’s well into August and the so-called dog days, it’s become especially important.

The Padres opened Sunday’s game with Bell again available, but the idea of not using either Gregerson or Adams, the Nos. 1 and 2 major league pitchers in holds this year. Each had thrown in four of the Padres’ last five games — Gregerson gave up the game-tying run Saturday — and the Padres are being mindful that Adams is coming off an oblique strain that had him on the disabled list.

Indeed, Bell was the only reliever in the bullpen who didn’t pitch Saturday, leaving Black speaking in general about how nice it would be to get a “widespread victory” one of these days. He couldn’t have expected it Sunday, given the fact that two-time Cy Young Award-winner Tim Lincecum was starting for the Giants, not to mention that six of the first 10 games against San Francisco this season had been decided by one run and none finished with a differential higher than three runs.

So, 8-2?

Neither Gregerson nor Adams nor Bell were needed in the Padres’ rout Sunday, San Diego getting one perfect inning from Joe Thatcher and another from Ernesto Frieri.

Eckstein nearing rehab

Nursing along a calf injury that’s had him on the disabled list since July 21, second baseman David Eckstein may be within a couple days of returning to the playing field, starting with three or four rehab starts while the Padres are on the road in the Midwest. The indication is that Eckstein most likely will join the Single-A Fort Wayne club to get into game condition.

“I’m feeling good,” he said Sunday. “We’re going on four straight days of pretty good running without any soreness or tightness. Tomorrow we’ll get out and do more on the base paths. If everything goes well … we’re getting closer.”

Odds and ends

That bloop of a game-winning hit by Juan Uribe was the most disappointing thing to happen to Tim Stauffer in San Francisco this year, but not the most painful. The last time he came to the city with the Padres, Stauffer left town without a body part.

Scars are the only aftereffect remaining from the emergency appendectomy that Stauffer underwent the morning of May 11, that after he’d basically self-diagnosed his health issue via iPhone in his hotel room. As it happened, his iPhone had a WebMD application that explained the fire in his abdomen.

“I don’t even know why I had it on there,” said Stauffer. “I think it was one of those things I got for free with the phone and thought, ‘Hey, this can’t hurt.’ ”

•The Padres continued a rather bizarre streak by the Giants, who have one of the best rotations in the business. Including the three games over the weekend, San Francisco starters haven’t won any of the last dozen games. They’ve gone 0-7 while the bullpen went 5-0 in that stretch.

•With the deadline for signing draft choices set for 8:59 p.m. today, the Padres expect negotiations with No. 1 pick Karsten Whitson to go down to the wire. Whitson, taken ninth overall, is a 6-foot-4, 195-pound pitcher from Chipley (Fla.) High School.